As a niche marketer, you know that one of your best tools is having a WordPress blog set up on your own domain. Even if you’re primarily working as an affiliate marketer, you need a place to share information and capture the contact details of your audience.
When you start off in a niche, you want to make sure you choose a domain that reflects your slant on the niche. For example, you could choose a broad domain like dietingforweightloss.com – or a specific slant such as dietingforseniorwomen.com.
Try not to choose a domain that has any other extension but dot com. And don’t use hyphens in your domain. Keep it as short as possible, but make sure it reflects the niche – or your brand.
After you register your domain, you’ll need to get hosting for it. If you’re starting out with one niche blog, then invest in a starter account. It’s always easy to level up whenever you need more space.
Choose a host with an easy cPanel with Softaculous ( Softaculous is an automated software installer/manager) available and then log in and scroll down to where it says Software and Services. Click on the Softaculous icon and follow the steps to install WordPress onto your domain.
Plugins can help your visitors have a better experience on your niche site. But they can also help you, as a blogger. For example, the WordPress Editorial Calendar plugin helps you keep your content schedule neatly organized and ready for automated publishing.
Security is important with WordPress so don’t neglect that. Hackers love to hack WordPress sites. You don’t want to risk your hard work and time investment let alone your reputation with your audience by slacking on WordPress security. Hackers don’t care if your site gets 1,000s of visitors a day, or none. They love hacking WordPress sites period.
The WordFence security plugin is a “must-have” on every WordPress installation. You will find the excellent free version here, WordFence from the WordPress Plugin Directory.
For your visitors, you can install plugins that help socialize your site. When they read a blog post they really like, they can share it on Twitter, Google Plus, Facebook and more! Sharing a link to your latest blog post on your social media accounts is a great way to get more traffic to your site.
Pick a theme for your blog that gives it a nice, clean layout. Navigation is key. Remember, you’ll have people coming back as repeat readers, and they should always see fresh niche content each and every time.
Before you start blogging a lot, set up your basic niche site pages, which can include a contact form page, resources or recommendations, a disclaimer page, and so on.
Adding fresh content to your niche blog should be done as often as possible. Daily is best, but try not to dip below three times a week. You can always outsource some of the writing, but make sure you put your personal voice in it.
Your audience needs a consistent voice to build and maintain the connections that lead to loyal blog followers who want you to recommend products for them to purchase. That’s the real key to making money with your blog.
Use your blogs sidebar to show ads for things like web hosting, and autoresponders you use in your business to add passive income to your site profits. Another good use of the sidebar is to give visitors the opportunity to subscribe to your email list.